488 Mr. F. E. Blaauw : Field-notes on some 



In Chile I met with eight specimens of this pretty Duck 

 on a wild mountain-torrent which I passed along, travelling 

 from Ensenade los Volcan on the Lake Llanquihue to the 

 Lake Todos los Santos. 



The birds were sitting on a big rock in the wildest part of 

 the torrent. Five were old males and three were females — 

 easily known by their rufous colour. They were sitting 

 upright, very much like Cormorants. 



When they saw me they jumped into the seething water 

 and, although with their heads towards the fall of the 

 water, they managed to stay almost in the same place, 

 looking at me all the while. After a time they swam to 

 another rock, jumped upon it, jumped off again into the 

 water, dived, and reappeared at some distance, and in 

 the end hid themselves behind some large stones. They 

 did not take wing. 



The third time I met with Merganetta was in a little 

 mountain -stream, which flowed into the Nahuel Huapi Lake 

 near Puei'to Blest, in the eastern part of the Gobernacion 

 del Rio Negro (Argentine Republic). It was a solitary 

 female. 



Tachyeres cinereus. (PI. XIV.) 



It is a matter of conti'oversy amongst ornithologis;_s 

 whether there are one or two species of so-called Steamer 

 Ducks, known locally as "Pato vapores." 



I am sure that there are two. 



The non-flying Steamer Duck, the " Sea-horse '^ of the 

 old seafarers, has been known a long time, but although 

 much has been said and written about an allied species 

 that could fly (for instance, by Oustalet in his ' Mission 

 scientifique du Cap Horn,' where he devotes over twenty 

 pages to it), everything that has been said points to the 

 fact that the actual difference between the non-flying and 

 the allied flying species has never been clearly stated. The 

 latter has certainly never been properly described. 



What is called Tachyeres patachonicus is the bird aimed 

 at, in so far as a flying bird was meant, but how that flying 



